Monday, November 16, 2015

Yogi Berra FINALLY Gets his Presidential Medal of Freedom

Yankees Announce 2016 Coaching Staff

Mike Harkey is back as the bullpen coach of the New York Yankees. Harkey, a close friend of manager Joe Girardi, was recently relieved of his duties as the pitching coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks after a losing season in 2015. Harkey replaces the man that replaced him, Gary Tuck. Tony Pena will take over the duties of working with the catchers now that Tuck is gone.

Manager: Joe Girardi
Bench Coach: Rob Thomson
First Base Coach: Tony Pena
Third Base Coach: Joe Espada
Bullpen Coach: Mike Harkey
Pitching Coach: Larry Rothschild
Hitting Coach: Alan Cockrell
Assistant Hitting Coach: Marcus Thames

Yankees' 10 Best Moments of 2015

Most Popular Article of the Week: Taking a Stab at the 2018 Yankees Starting Lineup


We’re back taking a stab at predicting the 2018 starting lineup for the New York Yankees. After the 2017 season the contracts of Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia and others come off the books the New York Yankees will no longer have a player under contract that was with the team when George Steinbrenner was alive. Let that sink in for a second before we begin.



Alex Rodriguez ($27.5 million without incentives, $32 million with incentives)

Best available DH position players on the free agent market: Ryan Howard, Carl Crawford, Jayson Werth, Carlos Gonzalez, Matt Holliday, Curtis Granderson, Melky Cabrera, Jay Bruce, Billy Butler, Carlos Santana, Jhonny Peralta, Seth Smith, Todd Frazier, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Brandon Belt.
 
The doors are wide open here for the New York Yankees. An absolute ton of money is coming off the books and so are the players that are hindering the team the most in terms of versatility and flexibility. New York could also sign a catcher like Kurt Suzuki or let John Ryan Murphy and Gary Sanchez handle the duties while Brian McCann transitions into a full-time DH role. The team could also rotate the likes of McCann, Chase Headley and others into the DH slot while signing a full-time infielder like New Jersey boy Todd Frazier. New York does seem to enjoy having a full-time DH though and have for years (Raul Ibanez, Hidek Matsui and Alex Rodriguez come to mind in recent memory) so I can see the team signing a younger Jayson Werth or even a Ryan Howard to a deal, although I’d put my money on the man that actually WANTS to be a Yankee. Mr. Matt Holliday.




CC Sabathia ($25 million)

Nathan Eovaldi (arbitration eligible so we will go with $5 million)

Michael Pineda (arbitration eligible so we will go with $5 million)

Masahiro Tanaka (if he opts out he walks away from $22 million)

Best available SP position players on the free agent market : Francisco Liriano, Ubaldo Jimenez, Clay Buchholz, Jaime Garcia, Lance Lynn, Alex Cobb, Danny Duffy, Jarrod Parker, Tyson Ross, Drew Smyly, Chris Tillman, Jake Arrieta, Henderson Alvarez and Tyler Chatwood.

This is a big hit to the New York Yankees with potentially four members of their starting rotation hitting free agency at the same time. Truth be told I can see both Eovaldi and Pineda either being extended (the more likely of the two scenarios) or traded (Pineda more so than Eovaldi at this point) but just for fun let's assume they both walk. Without these four on paper the Yankees are left with just Luis Severino on the roster unless the likes of Brady Lail, Rookie Davis, Adam Warren or Bryan Mitchell make the move to the rotation. If the Yankees are in the market for a starting pitcher or two you have to think Tyson Ross, Jake Arrieta or Danny Duffy would be the most attractive. The problem is the Yankees don't often get the biggest names on the free agent market so expect Francisco Liriano or a trade. Again, I can only see Sabathia being a true free agent and Tanaka opting out and ultimately being re-signed assuming health.



Dustin Ackley (arbitration eligible so we will go with $5 million)

Best available 2B position players on the free agent market: Brandon Phillips, Danny Espinosa, Scott Sizemore, Ryan Flaherty, Logan Forsythe, Trevor Plouffe and Eric Sogard.

I listed Ackley as a second basemen for simplicity purposes but really I believe the 27-year old will be used in the infield as well as the outfield in New York. The only player that really fits the mold as far as versatility goes is Logan Forsythe who is listed as a first baseman, second baseman and third baseman according to Baseball Reference. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities to see Forsythe learn a corner outfield spot for New York, or the team could go in an entirely different direction and get another outfielder elsewhere, maybe in a Jose Pirela.



Total number of players hitting free agency: 6
Total number of dollars coming off the books: Roughly $92 million with partial incentives





Adding Matt Holliday to a lineup and Logan Forsythe to a bench that already includes Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge (from our 2017 post), Robert Refsnyder, Greg Bird, Brian McCann, Chase Headley and Didi Gregorius you have a lineup that looks like it can mash with the best of them. A lineup that looks similar to the one below.

Ellsbury
Refsnyder
Holliday
McCann
Judge
Bird
Headley
Gardner
Gregorius



This is not the 1929 Yankees as we see it today but two years of seasoning and work from the likes of Refsnyder, Judge and Bird with a familiar face in Marcus Thames as their hitting coach and each and every man on the roster can come a long way. The team will be versatile, flexible and the offense has the potential to be downright unfair at times. The way the Yankees offense used to be when the team was winning World Series championships.

ICYMI: Taking a Stab at Predicting the 2017 Yankees Starting Lineup


When someone comes to me on Twitter and asks me to write an article about something I usually don’t decline. I’m a people person, a people person that is extremely appreciative of the following he has and the readers that interact with him, and I’m a person who likes to put the social aspect back into social media. I’m no different than you, I just have a blog. A friend of the blog, Rooney, came to me on twitter and asked me to take a stab at predicting the 2017 starting lineup for the New York Yankees. I’ll do him one better, I’ll take a stab at the 2017 starting lineups and the 2018 starting lineups (in a separate post later today). Rooney loves to throw these hypotheticals my way, he was the man who inspired my post detailing my plan if Robinson Cano left via free agency, Alex Rodriguez was suspended for the entire 2014 season and if Derek Jeter retired (which at the time we were only sure of the Jeter retirement), and frankly I enjoy doing them so here we go.


As we know the Yankees have a ton of money and contracts coming off the books after the 2016 and 2017 season including these major contracts (with their AAV’s in parenthesis) that will have to be replaced before 2017. For the sake of simplicity we are going to assume here that CC Sabathia does not retire and that his vesting option for the 2017 season triggers making him a warm body on the roster in 2016. Let’s take a look:



1B: Mark Teixeira ($22.5 million)

Best 1B available on free agent market: Michael Cuddyer, Kendrys Morales, Edwin Encarnacion, James Loney, Adam Lind, Pedro Alvarez and Michael Morse.

First baseman Mark Teixeira is easy to replace, barring a catastrophic injury or moronic (in my opinion) trade of Greg Bird you have to think that Bird will be the word in New York for the foreseeable future. The Yankees already began priming Bird for the position this season and will call him up at the first sign of trouble next season in my opinion. He showed he can slow the game down and not only handle Major League caliber pitching but dominate it at times. Exit Teixeira, Enter Bird.




RF: Carlos Beltran ($15 million)

Best RF available on free agent market: Jose Bautista, Josh Reddick, Mark Trumbo, Michael Saunders and Gregor Blanco.

The New York Yankees as a whole have changed, haven’t they? I’ve been asked to predict a lineup for the 2017 season and with big money coming off the books I’m not predicting major free agent signings. No, I’m predicting that players coming through the Yankees farm system and are given a shot to succeed with the club. Enter Aaron Judge. Yes, he struggled for much of the second half of the 2015 season in Triple-A with the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders but if you look at the stats and match them up with the timeline of the season you can see that his stats went down after his mystery back injury that was “no big deal” was reported. Back injuries can be scary, especially for big guys like Judge, and they can affect your swing immensely. Judge has all offseason to rest and rehab the back and has all of 2016 to prove he belongs, but he doesn’t have to prove it to me. He’s starting in right field for me on Opening Day 2017.




SS: Brendan Ryan ($2 million)

Best SS available on free agent market: Alexei Ramirez, Erick Aybar, Daniel Descalso, Ruben Tejada, Justin Turner and Chris Volstad.

Ryan is listed as a shortstop but really he’s a bench piece and the backup to Didi Gregorius. I could predict that a Jorge Mateo, Tyler Wade, Abi Avelino or even Jose Pirela could take the spot and keep with the theme of this post but there’s too many question marks there. Instead I’ll take a wild pick of Alexei Ramirez, a veteran right-handed bat with some pop coming towards the end of his career, to take Ryan’s spot. I expect a trade to fill the position before I expect a Ramirez signing but for the sake of this post we will go with Ramirez on a modest $3 million base salary and AAV.




SP: Ivan Nova (arbitration eligible until 2017 but we’ll go with $4 million for an even numbers sake)

Best SP available on free agent market: Jered Weaver, John Danks, Jorge De La Rosa, RA Dickey, Bronson Arroyo, Edinson Volquez, Scott Feldman, Andrew Cashner, Jesse Chavez, Stephen Strasburg and Dillon Gee. 

Honestly I can see Nova being off the club before the 2017 season and his first shot at free agency comes around. Since that’s too hard to predict we’ll assume he makes it all season in pinstripes in 2016 and tests the free agency waters in 2017. Looking at the starting rotation I see Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, Nathan Eovaldi and CC Sabathia still under contract so I can’t see the Yankees spending heavily on a starter here. Andrew Cashner is the most attractive piece of the bunch in my opinion but the problem with that is you pay for that. Stephen Strasburg is more hype than promise at this point in his career but he has a full season to turn those thoughts around. Jesse Chavez is the most likely signing for the Yankees because he is quietly a great pitcher that won’t command the huge deal that many others would but in the end I can see the Yankees signing no one and, for lack of a better term, pocket the roughly $4 million from Nova and allocate it elsewhere.



Total players coming off the books: 4
Total money coming off the books: $43.5 million




Adding the likes of Bird, Judge and Ramirez to the already existing contracts of Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Didi Gregorius, Brian McCann, Robert Refsnyder (I’m assuming he takes over and keeps the second base job), Alex Rodriguez and Chase Headley gives you a lineup that looks a little something like this.

Ellsbury
Refsnyder
Rodriguez
McCann
Bird
Headley
Gardner
Judge
Gregorius



I cannot see the Yankees eating the contract of Alex Rodriguez, especially after his comeback season of 2015, and I can’t see Alex walking away from his final season of his monster contract. Brett Gardner may be traded this offseason, that’s the trouble with doing these prediction posts so early in the offseason, and so could Refsnyder eventually but this is how it stands today. What are your predictions? Leave them below in the comments section or shoot us a tweet on Twitter and give @GreedyStripes a follow. Just don't hit the like button on Twitter, this isn't Facebook.

IBWAA SELECTS MILLER, MELANCON IN RELIEF PITCHER AWARD VOTE

Los Angeles – The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announced the winners in its relief pitcher category Sunday, with the New York Yankees’ Andrew Miller winning the 2015 IBWAA Rollie Fingers American League Relief Pitcher of the Year award, and Mark Melancon, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, being selected as the 2015 IBWAA Hoyt Wilhelm National League Relief Pitcher of the Year.

Miller received 58 first-place votes (33.14%) and 414 points while being named on 124 of 175 ballots (68.89%). Others receiving first-place votes include Dellin Betances (49), Wade Davis (34) and Huston Street (11).

Melancon received 84 first-place votes (47.73%) and 517 points while being named on 125 of 176 ballots (69.44%). Others receiving first-place votes include Aroldis Chapman (46), Trevor Rosenthal (24) and Jeurys Familia (15).

Election results are as follows:

AL Reief Pitcher:

1st Place: Andrew Miller, New York Yankees – 414 points
2nd Place: Dellin Betances, New York Yankees – 372
3rd Place: Wade Davis, Kansas City Royals – 306

NL Relief Pitcher:

1st Place: Mark Melancon, Pittsburgh Pirates – 517 points
2nd Place: Trevor Rosenthal, St. Louis Cardinals – 359
3rd Place: Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds – 312

Ballot tabulations by Brian Wittig & Associates, using the Borda Method.

The IBWAA was established July 4, 2009 to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as a digital alternative to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results being announced the following January.

The relief pitcher awards were established in 2010.

Among approximately 400 others, IBWAA members include Jim Bowden, Jim Caple, David Schoenfield and Mark A. Simon of ESPN.com; Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports; Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports Hardball Talk; Bill Chuck, GammonsDaily.com; Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; King Kaufman, Bleacher Report; Kevin Kennedy; Kostya Kennedy, Sports Illustrated; Will Leitch, Sports on Earth; Bruce Markusen, Hardball Times; Ross Newhan; Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com; Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News; Tom Hoffarth and J.P. Hoornstra Los Angeles Daily News; Pedro Moura, Orange County Register; Tracy Ringolsby, MLB.com; Ken Rosenthal, FoxSports.com; Eno Sarris, FanGraphs; Dan Schlossberg, USA Today; Jesse Spector, Sporting News and Wendy Thurm.

Association membership is open to any and all Internet baseball writers, with a yearly fee of $20, or $35 lifetime. Discounts for groups and scholarships are available. Members must be 18 years of age to apply.

For more information please visit www.ibwaa.com.

Contact:



Howard Cole
Founding Director, IBWAA
baseballsavvy@aol.com

The Yankees 40 Man Roster Crunch and Possible DFA Candidates


The New York Yankees are a team right now in transition, whether it appears to be that way or not. To the naked eye it seems that the team, under the plan of Brian Cashman, is trying to get younger and cheaper at any and every position they can with the aging veterans and their hefty contracts coming off the books after the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Soon enough we’ll all be writing and reading about the exits of Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and CC Sabathia and talking about the arrivals of Aaron Judge, Ronald Herrera and Domingo Acevedo. The way these plans are executed is by building from the bottom to the top and building from within. That sounds easy enough until you run into a continuous problem for the Yankees, a 40 man roster crunch.

The Yankees began positioning their 40 man roster at the end of last season when they designated Tyler Austin for assignment and the club has continued jockeying for positions with the outrights of Diego Moreno, Andrew Bailey and Sergio Santos. Cashman even stated that the reasoning behind the Jose Pirela trade was to clear a 40 man roster space without essentially losing Pirela for nothing, much like you would if you designate a player for assignment. Thankfully, for lack of a better word here, New York has a few DFA candidates that can help Cashman in his never-ending struggle to juggle the 40 man roster.

Austin Romine - The Yankees will sell the whole spring training competition for the backup catcher line this March but we all know, as things stand today, the job is going to Gary Sanchez. Sanchez tore up Double-A, then proceeded to tear up Triple-A before tearing up the Arizona Fall League. He’s ready and the job is his to lose…. Finally.

Brendan Ryan – For the first time in what seems like forever the Yankees have a ton of middle infield depth. One thing the team is lacking though is shortstop depth and that is Ryan’s one saving grace for the team. This doesn’t mean that Cashman couldn’t get creative and DFA Ryan and eat his meager $1 million in salary for a more versatile player that can play shortstop plus first base or the outfield for example. Ryan is safe for now but that can change in an instant if Cashman sees an upgrade elsewhere.


Domingo German/Chase Whitley – These two fit into the same category. Both had Tommy John surgery in 2014 and neither will be ready for the beginning of the 2016 season, Whitley may not be ready at all in 2016. Both could be DFA’d and snuck through waivers with other teams knowing this and added later on in the season or in 2017. 

Weekly AFL Check In: Gary Sanchez


Gary Sanchez was presumably a mixed bag of emotions this week when he learned that his former Yankees teammate and fellow longtime Yankees prospect John Ryan Murphy was traded to the Minnesota Twins for outfielder Aaron Hicks. On one hand all signs point to Sanchez being the backup catcher in the Bronx on Opening Day 2016 but on the other hand he saw a player he has grown up with, undoubtedly worked with and spoken with and built a friendship or bond with, traded. That’s all part of the game, Murphy knows that and I’m sure Sanchez does too, but that doesn’t hold your emotions in check any better.

So the audition for the backup job in the Bronx starts now for Sanchez. After a strong showing in Double-A and Triple-A in 2015 and after making his Major League debut late in the season Sanchez is ready to use the Arizona Fall League and his time with the Surprise Saguaros to his advantage. Before the AFL season started I personally thought the Yankees were using the league to build Sanchez’s trade value, now I think we all know it was to get him ready for the big stage.

Get ready folks, Gary Sanchez is coming.


Gary Sanchez:

Games: 18
At Bats: 77
AVG: .299
OBP: .329
SLG: .649
OPS: .979
H: 23
HR: 7
RBI: 19
BB: 3
K: 16

This Day In New York Yankees History 11/16: Yankees,Yomiuri Giants & Hideki Matsui


On this day in 2002 the New York Yankees and the Japanese League Yomiuri Giants sign a deal that creates a partnership between the two biggest teams in their respected leagues. Both teams hope to benefit from improved scouting, marketing, and other benefits that will help both teams. Enter Hideki Matsui in 2003.